Chapter 2
HE CAME OUT OF THE ELEVATOR JUST as she stepped into the hotel. Coincidence? Probably not. He was dressed in a pale blue silk suit that fit him perfectly, bespoke for sure, and brown shoes of woven leather. If the restaurant dress code required jacket and tie he was technically out of compliance, preferring instead a white ribbed knit cotton shirt without a collar. There was a large watch on his wrist, with a Velcro strap like a sports watch, probably one of those fancy super expensive sports watches that could make phone calls and surf the net. One that he could run with and swim with, in the nude even, and keep in touch with his robot masters. Probably the thing that had interrupted his morning orgy on the beach.
"Be-ah." He stopped short. He had been about to use the wrong pronunciation. "Can I just call you Betty?"
"Betty? No one has ever called me Betty." She rolled it around on her tongue. "Call me Bea. As you just did. That is what my friends call me. And what should I call you? Do you have a nickname?"
He hesitated, and then said, "Birdy."
"Birdy?"
"You know, Nestor, Bird's Nest. Some time in grade school, but it stuck. Sometimes as Birdbrain.'
"And now you are the Bald Eagle?" She could not resist.
"That's quite a dress." It consisted of a piece of sheer pink fabric that looped around her neck so the two ends each crossed a breast, not exactly hiding it, then just below that reached a sort of belt up around her midriff. At that point, two long pieces of fabric covered her lower body front and back. Sort of. Her sides were bare from the middle of her back down. A long gold chain looped around her neck secured a tiny beaded purse resting on a bare hip. Her footwear was obscured by the long hems of the split skirt, but whatever it was had brought her eyes up to near level with his. Eyes like two black olives to go with the olive oil hue of her skin.
"Yes. This spring our upper secondary school, what you call..."
"High school."
"High school. Well, we were all getting high. In the classes. Anyway, as part of graduation we had a fancy ball."
"A prom. And you wore that dress?"
"It has another layer to go underneath. But it's hot and itchy. I mean, who is going to care here? We could dine naked on the terrace, if we wanted to. And I thought if I'm going be a for real whore, not just a cam whore, I might as well dress the part."
"Did you have a date? For the prom?"
"Risa." As if that was the stupidest question ever. "She went dressed as my pimp."
"Oh. What's in the bag?"
"The stuff you wanted for tonight." She let him peek in to see a dildo.
"Oh. Well, you can leave it at the coat check. We'll retrieve it after dinner."
"Okay." She was starting to tremble a little. The fact that she had told him she'd just graduated from high school, even if Italian high school did run a year longer, was bothering her. Of course, he knew already, knew she'd been doing cam shows for several years. He put an arm around her, this time she did not resist, and shepherded her over to the coat check. The girl there gave them a questioning look, the more so as she looked at the contents of the bag.
"
C'est exactement comme vous le pensez."
It's exactly what you think. "Do you have a problem with that?" Beatrice glared at the coat check girl, they were about the same age, and that produced a blush.
"No, of course not. It's none of my business. Oh my." Her eyes widened as she recognized the bracelet on the arm that was offering her a couple euros for safekeeping of the bag. As they walked across the lobby they could see in the mirrored doors of the elevators that she was busy on her phone.
"Where did you get this beautiful suit?" Beatrice was feeling the fabric on his sleeve, also how hard the flesh was underneath it. Old men were not supposed to be hard like that. "I have spent a lot of time in clothing stores..."
"Running around naked making the videos that made you famous."
"Well of course, but we did look around, at least Risa and I did. Rocco would get very impatient, he hated to shop. He was only there to film us, and maybe get a blowjob. But my point is, we would look for clothes for him also, and I never saw a suit anything like this."
"Hong Kong. My last assignment was in Southeast Asia."
"Oh." There was a question she wanted to ask, but refrained. A question about child prostitutes and compensated dating and ladyboys and just who the fuck had he been fucking. "I guess an almost twenty year old must seem ancient to you after that."
"One so experienced." And of course he knew that was not true at all. "So why did you bring along the bag?"
"Why do you think? Look, I had a long talk with Rocco and Risa after you left. They were both encouraging me to do more than just have dinner. In fact, Risa was going through the list saying you need to try this, you need to try that, I always wanted to do that, things like that. And Rocco was hinting maybe the money would come in handy."
She stopped. They had found a table, not much of a challenge in a room that was almost empty, and a waitress had come over to hand them menus.
"Hello, I'm Rachel. I'll be you're server tonight." In English. Apparently she had overheard some of their conversation. Even though it was inside in the evening, the waitress was still dressed for the terrace, nothing but a little lap apron with pouches.
"Hello Rachel. You are very lovely." That from Nestor was uncalled for. Skin tanned to just a very light brown, short blonde hair, pointy chin and nose, little perky breasts. If that's what he liked, what the fuck was he doing with Beatrice? "I love your tattoo." He pointed to a garland of roses along her right thigh, and she pulled up the apron a little to show off more of it.
"We put on fake tattoos for the shows sometimes, but I'm never getting a real one. My mother has tattoos. They were probably really sexy when she got them, but now they just remind you how wrinkled her skin is." Beatrice was staring morosely at her menu. "There are a lot more choices on the French one."
"The seafood here is pretty good. I'd stay away from the steak."
"I'd totally forgotten we were doing a show tonight, but they were both saying don't worry we can handle it on our own. Like they'd be happier not having me there. You know, years ago Risa told me she loved me but she wanted to see what it was like with a guy, and I said why not my brother? And it worked all those years. Well, I guess a couple years. For me it's a long time. I'll have the shrimp cocktail and the filet mignon. Medium." That as the waitress who had been loitering near enough to eavesdrop came back over to their table.
"Shrimp cocktail and the flounder for me."
"Would you care for anything to drink?"
"Iced tea for me."
"And you,
mademoiselle
?"
"One of those." She pointed to a huge frosted thing on the cocktail menu.
"Maybe you're being over sensitive. At some point maybe they'll want to get married, but she's still very young."
"Anyway, they told me to come over and fuck your brains out and here I am in my whore dress and my bag of toys and I'm scared shitless. The only guy I've ever been with is my brother and only a couple of times."
"What about the Black Mass?"
"It was pitch dark with strobe lights and heavy metal music and bodies everywhere. I have no idea who did what to me. It was all licking though, no fucking."
